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Preliminary Data on Road Safety in Europe, 2003

Improvement continues in the West and there is mixed progress in Eastern and Central European countries, but results are still worrying in the Community of Independent States

12 October, 2004

Preliminary data available from ECMT Member Countries reveal considerable divergence in the evolution of road safety in European countries in 2003. While road safety continues to improve significantly in Western European countries and seems to be moving towards a real progress [against] road fatalities in Central and Eastern Europe, in CIS countries, however, road safety indicators continue to deteriorate.

In Western Europe the number of road traffic fatalities declined in 2003 by 5.9%, the best result recorded for the last 15 years. This important decrease was further strengthened in 2003 by drops in the number of injured (-4.5%) and in the number of accidents (-3.7%), thereby maintaining the favourable trend in place since 2001 for these two indicators. 

In Central and Eastern Europe the number of fatalities decreased by 2.9% in 2003. This result puts those countries back on the promising trends of the years 2000 and 2001. Conversely the number of injuries and the number of accidents increased significantly, by 2.4% and 2.7% respectively. 

Once again the Community of Independent States was confronted in 2003 with an important rise of 6.5% in the number of people killed on the roads, reinforcing the already bad results of the previous year.

Behind these [overall] figures lie significant variations from one country to another, as the following tables show:

Source:  ECMT Press Release 12/10/04